Posted on 12/08/2006 4:56:23 AM PST by Dr. Scarpetta
Mel Gibson is sicker than we thought.
As his new film "Apocalypto" makes clear, he's not just a drinker and a raving anti-Semite, but a man with a grotesque appetite for human suffering and an enormous talent for exploiting it.
There was great violence in "Braveheart," too, but it was cloaked in historical context. And the stripping of Jesus' flesh in "The Passion of the Christ" had the cover of Scripture. But "Apocalypto" exists solely as an action-adventure and a deft cinematic demonstration of man's capacity for cruelty.
This is the true passion of Mel.
If you can take unflinching views of throats being slit, heads being caved in, a man's face being eaten by a panther, beating hearts torn from men's chests and decapitated heads bounding down the steps of a pyramid, you're in for a first-rate spectacle of inhumanity.
"Apocalypto" is set in the final days of the crumbling Mayan civilization, when drought and disease have driven warriors farther into the Mexican rainforest to collect natives for the sacrificial altar. As no one knows better than Gibson, the gods must be appeased.
One captive is Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), a gentle hunter/gatherer who hides his pregnant mate and child in a dry well before being led away. At the temple atop a massive stone pyramid, Jaguar Paw is about to meet his maker - or the Mayans' maker, or at least the priest's knife - when fate intervenes.
A total eclipse of the sun convinces the priest that the gods' thirst for blood has been sated, sparing Jaguar and the other captives. But not for long. They're taken to a field and told to run for freedom while Mayan warriors shower them with spears and arrows.
Somehow, Jaguar clears the gauntlet and races into the jungle toward home and his family, with a band of angry, tattooed spear throwers hot on his trail and a tropical storm brewing overhead.
Is Gibson making some kind of comment about the inhumanity of non-Christian cultures - first the Jews, now the Mayans? "Apocalypto" suggests that the pagans are about to be tamed, if not have their souls saved, by Gibson's Catholic forebears rowing ashore from the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria.
More and more, Gibson's personality problems seem beyond the scope of movie reviews.
In any case, "Apocalypto" is the real deal as a jungle thriller. Its digital cinematography is gorgeous, its makeup and costumes are stunning, and its mostly nonpro cast - speaking in obscure Yucatec and translated with subtitles - is as authentic as the jungle of Veracruz where the film was shot.
Now that "Apocalypto" is being seen, four months after Gibson's arrest and tirade in Malibu, some in the media are asking whether Hollywood can forgive him by bestowing an Oscar.
What an ironic possibility! This is a movie dedicated to bloodlust (forget the gods, can the audience's thirst be sated?) and not the sort of thing Academy voters typically honors with awards.
An Oscar would not be forgiveness; it would be blindness.
Indeed. When the Brits took over New Amsterdam from the Dutch, they wanted to get rid of the pesky (but peaceful) Canarsie Indians that lived within Brooklyn, Queens and the rest of Long Island. They brought down the Mohawk from the upper Hudson Valley and they wiped the Canarsies out.
It is a mesmerizing film even if one has no interest in the Mayas.
That quote is worth repeating: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within."
Mayan civilization: Coming soon to an Aztlan near you.
I won't give any plot spoilers, but I was amazed by the story itself. Even apart from the big-picture "meaning" of the film, Gibson is just a darn good storyteller about these characters. And the cast of unknown actors were fantastic. There is complete conviction and believability in every character.
Dean Semler did the cinematography -- he did the filming of all three "Mad Max" movies, and was the perfect choice for this film.
Having the dialogue completely in Mayan was genius. Kudos to everyone involved with the costuming and special effects.
Then, as for the big-picture "meaning" of the film, Gibson structured it as a marvelous Rorscharch test. It depicts man's inhumanity to man in such a spectacular way, that the viewer is invited to see parallels with the world today. Yet he also offers the hope for transformation and change through transcendent love.
I have been to the Yucatan several times. Human sacrifice was a later Mayan practice and they are not proud of it.
sounds like another snuff film.
There are panthers in Mexico?
Tarantino movies are like comic books - you cannot take them seriously.
Have you seen the Sopranos lately? It has become BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING.
There are panthers in Mexico?
WHY, WHY , welcome back to FR , you idjit! Up to your old tricks eh?Couldn’t stay away huh?
Incoming.
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